Obama's campaign for the presidency, 2004-09

Edexcel a level history 39.1 Civil rights and race relations

The importance of the political career of Barack Obama to 2006, including his election as senator for Illinois in 2004: Obama’s early life, when and where was he born

4th August 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii

The importance of the political career of Barack Obama to 2006, including his election as senator for Illinois in 2004, what about Obama’s background was questioned by his Republican Party opponents

• whether he was born on the USA

• Obama was the first presidential candidate who made his birth certificate public

• he was accused of being Muslim, his middle name, Hussein, was used as evidence

The importance of the political career of Barack Obama to 2006, including his election as senator for Illinois in 2004, Obama’s first success at winning elective office?

1996, when he won a seat in the Illinois state legislature for the 13th District, which included the South Side of Chicago and and the area of Hyde Park, both predominantly black areas of poverty and social deprivation

The importance of the political career of Barack Obama to 2006, including his election as senator for Illinois in 2004, what did Obama develop a reputation for in the Illinois state legislature?

working with both Democrats and Republicans to pass legislation to expand health care and early years education programmes for the poor.

The importance of the political career of Barack Obama to 2006, including his election as senator for Illinois in 2004, what did Obama become chairperson of?

the Illinois senate Health and Human Services Committee - in this role, he helped improve the rights of suspects held by the police by requiring video-taping of police interrogations

The importance of the political career of Barack Obama to 2006, including his election as senator for Illinois in 2004, When did he suffer his first electoral setback and what happened

• in 2000

• tried to become the Democratic candidate for the 1st Congressional District of Illinois for the US House of Representatives

• the district covered the South Side of Chicago and was 65% black.

• the seat was held for the democrats by black American Bobby Rush, who had been a founder of the Black Panther Party in Chicago in 1968

• Rush won the primary election 60% to 31%

• then went on to retain the seat with 88% of the vote

The importance of the political career of Barack Obama to 2006, including his election as senator for Illinois in 2004, what was the turning point in Obama’s political career

• 2004

• won a seat in the US Senate and gave a keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention

The importance of the political career of Barack Obama to 2006, including his election as senator for Illinois in 2004, who were Obama’s Democrat opponents for US Senate?

• Daniel Hynes, who already held the state-wide office of state comptroller and was more widely known than Obama. Hynes’ father had been a State senator

• Blair Hull of Chicago, a wealthy businessman with a personal fortune of $131-$444 million. In 2002, he had financed a number of Democrat campaigns within Illinois

• Maria Pappas, who was Cook County treasurer

• Gery Chico, had been chief of staff to Chicago Mayor

The importance of the political career of Barack Obama to 2006, including his election as senator for Illinois in 2004, change in popularity polls in February and March

February, Obama was on 15%, behind Hull who had 24%. By March, Obama was leading the polls with a more than 10% greater share than his nearest rivals

The importance of the political career of Barack Obama to 2006, including his election as senator for Illinois in 2004, What emphasised the Obama surge in support?

• media coverage in the final week of the campaign

• aided by an effective advertising campaign paid for by Obama, which recounted his life’s story

• high-profile endorsements, such as Michael Jordan who donated a $10,000 cheque

The importance of the political career of Barack Obama to 2006, including his election as senator for Illinois in 2004, what caused Hull’s campaign to collapse?

Hull’s divorce, his ex-wife placed two restraining orders and there had been a physical quarrel between them

The importance of the political career of Barack Obama to 2006, including his election as senator for Illinois in 2004, Obama won the Democrat Party primary election with what percent of the vote?

53%

The importance of the political career of Barack Obama to 2006, including his election as senator for Illinois in 2004, who had won the Republican Primary election for the Illinois Senate seat?

Jack Ryan, who had won a hard-fought primary campaign. Was Uni of Harvard educated, married to a television star Jeri Ryan - both vote-winning qualities

The importance of the political career of Barack Obama to 2006, including his election as senator for Illinois in 2004, what made winning the Senate seat very challenging for Obama

• Ryan and Obama seen as well-educated, photogenic and charismatic

• Dems and reps evenly represented in Illinois - Dems had 10 congressional districts, Reps had 9

• Ryan’s personal wealth as a successful businessman and the financial power of the Reps

The importance of the political career of Barack Obama to 2006, including his election as senator for Illinois in 2004, what advantages did Obama have in winning the Senate seat?

• in primary elections, Obama won 656,000 votes while Ryan won 235,000 votes

• Democrats dominated the vote in Chicago

• Republican vote in decline in suburban areas surrounding Chicago

• ultimately won due to major problem in Republican Party Campaign

The importance of the political career of Barack Obama to 2006, including his election as senator for Illinois in 2004, what was the major problem in the Republican campaign for Illinois Senate seat

• Ryan involved in divorce case

• Ryan withdrew as candidate, replaced by a conservative black commentator, Alan Keyes

• media response negative towards Keyes, campaign failed to win over undecided voters

• strongly against abortion and gay rights and in favour of increasing the role of religion in US Society

• Obama ran a very energetic campaign concentrating on key social issues and used his experience of community-based projects in Chicago to organise a grass-roots campaign which dealt with local issues

The importance of the political career of Barack Obama to 2006, including his election as senator for Illinois in 2004: Obama vote share against Keyes in 2004

won 69.9% against 27.05%. just over 1/3 of Republican supporters voted for Obama

The importance of the political career of Barack Obama to 2006, including his election as senator for Illinois in 2004: example of Obama’s cross-party collaboration in US Senate

Worked with Republican Tom Coburn to create a website that tracked federal spending, aimed at rebuilding citizen trust after the debacle of the fed response to Hurricane Katrina

The importance of the political career of Barack Obama to 2006, including his election as senator for Illinois in 2004